Resist - Then Become A Scribe

Knowledge and understand are delusions of an information technology world that makes you think you are smarter than you really are.

By Quinn V. McMurtry

You are not as smart or as technologically advanced as you think you are. Chances are, if you are reading this now, you have been deluded into thinking that you are technologically savvy and that as technology advances your intelligence advance as well. The truth is it does not. We are all just one disaster away from being unplugged from our Matrix-like world, where we

believe ourselves to be educated, aware, advanced, evolved, enlightened, and erudite.

Unless you are a computer engineer or a Wall Street investment banker, the chances are you probably less knowledgeable than someone from the turn of the century. Take away the message-delivery technology and then what? Just because you can Google it, doesnt mean you know it.

Its a tough realization to swallow, but ask yourself this: As you glide your finger across your I-phone, click-send your Gmail or select your prepackaged mutual fund, do you really now how these processes work? Chances are you dont. I dont. And the more attached and dependent upon technology we become, the larger the chasm grows between those who know and those who dont. Even now, as we see the debate rage between the elites, the progressives, the conservatives and the 99 percenters, the argument is too often framed as a debate of ownership or possession between those who have and those who do not. However, this is often a ruse, a red herring, because the debate is not properly framed to reflect the truth - its framed by those who control the flow of information and the access to power.

Ancient Scribes For centuries knowledge was written and kept by those who knew how to communicate information. The scribes were the intelligentsia, the purveyors of what was known, and the regulators of what was revealed. Like the computer

designers and investment bankers of today, the ancient scribes were literate and possessed the exclusive knowledge of how to place a split reed in wet clay and then form a symbolic impression. Cuneiform was the coding of the ancient world and the ticket to prosperity, security, and exclusivity in a despotic world.

Compared with most other ancient Egyptians, scribes had a good life. A blacksmith would have fingers like the claws of a crocodile and stink more than fish roe after work. A potter would grub in the mud more than a pig, in order to fire his pots. But a scribe never suffered, never lacked reward for his workand never had to pay taxes. (link)

I first learned about the exclusivity of being a scribe, when I was working on a documentary about ancient Babylon. Prior, I just considered scribes to be monklike transcribers of contemporary and past knowledge. But the life of a scribe was much more than just making impressions into wet clay or painting hieroglyphics on a tomb. In reality scribes were the elite of their day, people who traveled the ancient world from kingdom to kingdom and were members of an exclusive caste system spanning time and kingdoms.

Modern Day Scribes

Who are they? Visit Apple or Google or Goldman Sachs; inside you will find the modern day scribe, their ancient Cuneiform now a string of computer coding and statistical data or credit-default-swaps. They are the creators of the illusion of

knowledge - conjurors of a mass delusion of technological and financial mastery. Now, I am not implying that modern day scribes and their rulers meet and conspire together to dominate and maintain their power; what I am implying is that the mechanisms of government and industry are so monolithic and pervasive that these entities host the scribes and crown the rulers.

According to Michel Foucault, power emanates from societys mechanisms. Our governments and industries effectively create a process or a structure whereby scribes are groomed and recruited and what emerges is a system that fosters and enhances its own exclusivity. Foucault calls this the machine of power. In essence, our modern day scribes rule from inside the entities of power mechanisms whereby the control of individuals, groups, businesses and governments are strategically maintained.

Unquestionably people today are more prosperous and have more freedom than ever before. That is not what I am questioning. What I am questioning is our blind acceptance and adherence to governments and economies that create and foster an elite intelligentsia ruling from within the mechanism of power. To resist this, people need to question the answers that are given, doubt more and seek a higher level of understanding and strive for a deeper knowledge.

Litmus Test for the Non-scribe

Ask yourself a few questions.

Do you buy stocks? If so, do you get the IPO (initial public offering) before Goldman Sachs traders and their preferred clients or do you get it after these insiders, their friends of friends, congressmen and women, hedge funds managers or investment bankers?

Do you know how the coding and hardware work to feel the heat of your finger and the directional force applied for the computer interface?

Do you visit Davos, Switzerland annually?

Can you truly write computer code?

Doctors, attorneys, fireman and police officers aside, if youve answered no to the questions above, there is a good chance that you are not a modern day scribe. And if you are not, but you think that because you can easily operate an I-phone or you can blissfully attest to being a savvy multi-tasker, juggling emails, texts messages, while choosing your mutual fund account, you might be suffering from a form of an illusion of asymmetrical insight.

Asymmetrical Insight

The Illusion of Asymmetrical Insight is defined as: The illusion of asymmetric insight is a cognitive bias that involves the fact that people perceive their knowledge of others to surpass other people's knowledge of themselves. The source for this bias seems typically stems from the fact that observed behaviors of others are more revealing than one's own similar behaviors. Relatedly, people seem to believe that they know themselves better than their peers know themselves and that their social group knows and understands other social groups better than other social groups know them. In other words we do not truly see our own shortcomings. We naively perceive our knowledge to be greater than it truly is. We believe that we are enlightened, knowledgeable and fully aware. So the first rule is - Do not Google any of this. Here is an 8th grade final exam from Salina, Kansas from 1895: Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.

1.

2. Define verse, stanza and paragraph. 3. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic. 4. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold? 5. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?

6.

What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?

7. Find the cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton. Another part of the 1895 exam deals with climate. And for those of us who so readily accept that Global Warming is real or not, do we even understand what climate is instead we allow people to tell us what the problem is? Here are more of the 1895 test questions for the 8th Graders in Salina, Kansas regarding climate. 1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend? 2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas? 3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean? 4. Describe the mountains of North America. Today knowledge is merely more accessible, faster and channeled differently. As a civilization we do have more knowledge, but as individuals, we truly do not know more, and chances are, we probably know less than our predecessors. I guess we could teach them how to Google or how to operate a smartphone, but the lessons might just end there. Ditch the phone and the Google, they knew more then than we know now.

Global Resistance

Global resistance is not about a mob. Its not about a protest. Its not about being right or being wrong. Global resistance is about being reflective. Its about questioning authority, seeking a deeper understanding and doubting the information that is Googled or broadcasted. Global resistance is actively seeking the truth and understanding. And if you want to resist, first know that you are not as enlightened as you think yourself to be and that knowledge is more than just something channeled to you via the Internet. When in doubt tell yourself this:

Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy. Aristotle

And remember - before you choose to resist, think of the scribes of ancient times. Remember that the knowledge you seek, the technology that flows so easily through your hardware, the financial products you acquire, are written, designed, manipulated, controlled, understood and produced by someone else a modern day scribe.

So resist the mob resist the scribes. Rebel against the standard, doubt the mechanisms of power that select the scribes, and most of all, seek knowledge and understanding and then become more scribe-like.